In this tutorial we will show you how to protect your osCommerce website using the htaccess / htpasswd means. After installing osCommerce, you may see a message stating "This osCommerce Online Merchant Administration Tool installation is not additionally secured through htaccess/htpasswd means," which can be corrected in the Admin panel of osCommerce.

This htaccess/htpasswd protection creates an additional layer of security that can help stop people from attempting to access the Admin portion of your osCommerce eshop. This is because they would have to get through this first layer of password protection before they could even attempt to access your osCommerce Admin panel.

How to Secure Your osCommerce with htaccess Password Protection:

1. Login to the Admin Panel for osCommerce.
2. Click the Configuration option in the navigation menu, then select Administrators.
3. You will see the Administators listed, select the first one on the list, then you will see a menu appear to the right.
   

   Option	Description
   Username	This will list the name of the Administrator.
   New Password	Enter a password in this field, be sure to write this password down, as it will be required for logging in after you save this setting.
   Protect With htaccess/htpasswd	Check this box to enable htaccess protection.

   After making your selections, click the Save button. You will see a notification stating "This osCommerce Online Merchant Administration Tool installation is additionally secured through htaccess/htpasswd means."
   
   Now when you attempt to access your Admin area, you will be prompted for a username and password, before you get to the Admin login page. So you will have to enter your username and password twice, once to get to the osCommerce Admin page, and again to login to osCommerce.
   
   Congratulations, your osCommerce website is now protected using the htaccess / htpasswd method.